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Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

(Almost) No Bad Drugs: Near-Total Products Liability Immunity For Pharmaceuticals Explained, Anita Bernstein

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article explores four beliefs about supposed pharma-benevolence that appear to be shared by more than the industry, reaching the level almost of conventional wisdom. These figurative pillars help support one-sided results in court. However, each of the pillars on examination turns out at least a bit shaky. This Article puts them forward for review to start a necessary discussion.

The locus of this Article is products liability, where a court concludes that a manufactured object is defective or could be called defective by a factfinder following a trial. Drug manufacturers enjoy near-immunity from this consequence. Modern products liability identifies …

Personal Jurisdiction And National Sovereignty, Ray Worthy Campbell

Washington and Lee Law Review

State sovereignty, once seemingly sidelined in personal jurisdiction analysis, has returned with a vengeance. Driven by the idea that states must not offend rival states in their jurisdictional reach, some justices have looked for specific targeting of individual states as individual states by the defendant in order to justify an assertion of personal jurisdiction. To allow cases to proceed based on national targeting alone, they argue, would diminish the sovereignty of any state that the defendant had specifically targeted.

This Article looks for the first time at how this emphasis on state sovereignty limits national sovereignty, especially where alien defendants …

The Dilemma Of Interstatutory Interpretation, Anuj C. Desai

Washington and Lee Law Review

Courts engage in interstatutory cross-referencing all the time, relying on one statute to help interpret another. Yet, neither courts nor scholars have ever had a satisfactory theory for determining when it is appropriate. Is it okay to rely on any other statute as an interpretive aid? Or, are there limits to the practice? If so, what are they? To assess when interstatutory cross-referencing is appropriate, I focus on one common form of the technique, the in pari materia doctrine. When a court concludes that two statutes are in pari materia or (translating the Latin) “on the same subject,” the court …

Secret Conviction Programs, Meghan J. Ryan

Washington and Lee Law Review

Judges and juries across the country are convicting criminal defendants based on secret evidence. Although defendants have sought access to the details of this evidence—the results of computer programs and their underlying algorithms and source codes—judges have generally denied their requests. Instead, judges have prioritized the business interests of the for-profit companies that developed these “conviction programs” and which could lose market share if the secret algorithms and source codes on which the programs are based were exposed. This decision has jeopardized criminal defendants’ constitutional rights.

Supreme Court Journalism: From Law To Spectacle?, Barry Sullivan, Cristina Carmody Tilley

Washington and Lee Law Review

Few people outside certain specialized sectors of the press and the legal profession have any particular reason to read the increasingly voluminous opinions through which the Justices of the Supreme Court explain their interpretations of the Constitution and laws. Most of what the public knows about the Supreme Court necessarily comes from the press. That fact raises questions of considerable importance to the functioning of our constitutional democracy: How, for example, does the press describe the work of the Supreme Court? And has the way in which the press describes the work of the Court changed over the past several …

In Re Government Attorney-Client Privilege: A Categorical Rule To Settle The Issue, Luke Charette

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

This Note explores the reasoning and factors used by each of the federal circuits in deciding whether or not to uphold attorney-client privilege between the government and the lawyers representing it. After considering those factors, this Note argues that there should be a categorical rule that neither a state nor the federal government may invoke the attorney-client privilege in response to a criminal grand jury subpoena. To justify this conclusion, this Note outlines how current government attorney-client privilege case law, as well as the policy underpinnings of the privilege itself, dictate that a categorical rule is appropriate.

Virginia Bar Exam, February 2020, Section 2

Virginia Bar Exam Archive

No abstract provided.

Eitc For All: A Universal Basic Income Compromise Proposal, Benjamin M. Leff

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Much has been written about a concept called universal basic income (UBI). With a UBI, the government gives every person a certain amount of money each year, or even each month. The UBI has broad appeal with thinkers on both the right and the left, but the appeal is partially because different thinkers have different visions of what the current state of affairs is with respect to government welfare policies and different theories about why these existing policies are inadequate or damaging. Reforming existing programs, rather than making a radical break with the past, could satisfy at least some of …

Isolation For Profit: How Privately Provided Video Visitation Services Incentivize Bans On In-Person Visitation Within American Correctional Facilities, J. Tanner Lusk

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

American correctional facilities are banning in-person visitation in lieu of privately provided and expensive video visitation services. This Note discusses the types of private services provided; how video visitation negatively affects inmates’ mental health and finances; and the ongoing legal battle occurring in Knox County, Tennessee, regarding whether the Knox County Jail’s ban on in-person visitation violates the Constitution. Because of the significant degree of deference courts grant correctional facilities when considering whether challenged regulations violate the Constitution, it will be difficult for the Knox County Jail inmates to successfully argue that the jail has violated their constitutional rights. There …

“No More No-Poach”: An Antitrust Plaintiff’S Guide, Amanda Triplett

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

It may seem that agreements between employers not to hire or solicit employees from each other would be illegal under the Sherman Act’s prohibition of conspiracies to fix prices or allocate markets. However, the complexity of this issue pushes the boundaries of antitrust law. But the core principals of antitrust law are tailored to reject them. In a market of employers, where firms are competitors, no-poach restraints have horizontal elements subject to a harsher standard of antitrust review. Firms that enter into these arrangements bypass legal methods to protect against the harms of employee loss, such as a non-compete agreement. …

Masthead

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Something For Nothing: Universal Basic Income And The Value Of Work Beyond Incentives, Jonathan D. Grossberg

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Proponents and opponents of a universal basic income all acknowledge that the most significant political challenge to its adoption in the United States is that a universal basic income would not have a work requirement attached. Often, this is characterized as a problem involving incentives—the availability of a universal basic income would cause many people to stop working (or significantly curtail the number of hours that they work) and simply live off the universal basic income. This Article makes three contributions to the literature related to a universal basic income: First, it provides a typology for understanding the many reasons …

Servant Leadership And Presidential Immigration Politics: Inspiration From The Foot-Washing Ritual, Victor C. Romero

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda has been criticized by pundits and scholars alike and has been thwarted by courts concerned about executive overreach. This Article contributes to this chorus of critics by viewing the current immigration regime from a Christian perspective on servant leadership, contrary to the stereotype that Christianity necessarily aligns with any one particular political brand. Jesus Christ’s entreaty that his disciples wash each other’s feet provides a useful lens through which to evaluate whether this Administration’s work effectively advances communitarianism, a value consistent with Christian immigration ethics. An examination of a range of immigration policies—from the Muslim …

Land Of The Free (Appropriate Public Education), Home Of The Deprived: How Vocational Services Can Remedy Education Deprivations For Former Students With Disabilities, Maria N. Liberopoulos

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

This Note explores the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s requirement that all children between the ages of three and twenty-one are provided a free and appropriate public education. This Note focuses on the relief available for students who are either older than twenty-one or who received a high school diploma, but who did not receive a free and appropriate public education. After delving into the remedy of compensatory education, this Note proposes the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services of the Department of Education promulgate a new regulation that includes vocational training and services as a specific remedy under …

Fighting America’S Best-Selling Product: An Analysis Of And Solution To The Opioid Crisis, Ashley Duckworth

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Deaths from drug overdoses have doubled over the last ten years and are now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Although some overdoses may have involved more than one drug, prescription and/or illicit opioids were involved in many of these drug overdose fatalities. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Congress have enacted a string of regulations, statutes, and programs since the early 1990s, but nothing has seriously improved the opioid epidemic as it stands. If anything, the use of opioids has persisted. Many people want pharmaceutical companies to …

Where Is Home? The Challenge Of Finding Safe Housing Via Early Lease Termination For Victims Of Domestic Violence, Charlotte Gerchick

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

This Note addresses the legal recourse of domestic violence victims who are attempting to terminate a lease early for the purpose of escaping domestic violence at home. In March 2013, President Barack Obama signed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This version of the Act includes Title VI, which protects victims of domestic violence and stalking. Title VI applies to federally subsidized housing. It allows domestic violence victims to terminate a lease early for the purpose of removing themselves from an abusive household. Title VI also makes it illegal to deny or terminate housing assistance based on …

Table Of Contents

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wither Zauderer, Blossom Heightened Scrutiny? How The Supreme Court’S 2018 Rulings In Becerra And Janus Exacerbate Problems With Compelled-Speech Jurisprudence, Clay Calvert

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article examines how the United States Supreme Court’s 2018 decisions in the First Amendment cases of National Institute of Family & Life Advocates v. Becerra and Janus v. American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees, Council 31, muddle an already disorderly compelled-speech doctrine. Specifically, dual five-to-four decisions in Becerra and Janus raise key questions about the level of scrutiny—either a heightened test or a deferential variant of rational basis review—against which statutes compelling expression should be measured. Critically, Becerra illustrates the willingness of the Court’s conservative Justices to narrowly confine the aging compelled-speech test from Zauderer v. …

Reasonable Doubt And Relativity, Michael D. Cicchini

Washington and Lee Law Review

In theory, the Constitution protects us against criminal conviction unless the state can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In reality, this lofty standard is only as strong as the words used to explain it to the jury.

Unfortunately, attempts to explain reasonable doubt often create confusion, and sometimes even diminish the burden of proof. Many courts therefore believe that the better practice is not to attempt a definition. However, empirical studies demonstrate that reasonable doubt is not self-defining, i.e., when it is not explained to the jury, it offers defendants no greater protection against conviction than the two lower, …

(Un)Conscious Judging, Elizabeth Thornburg

Washington and Lee Law Review

Fact inferences made by the trial judge are the lynchpin of civil litigation. If inferences were a matter of universally held logical deductions, this would not be troubling. Inferences, however, are deeply contestable conclusions that vary from judge to judge. Non-conscious psychological phenomena can lead to flawed reasoning, implicit bias, and culturally influenced perceptions. Inferences differ significantly, and they matter. Given the homogeneous makeup of the judiciary, this is a significant concern.

This Article will demonstrate the ubiquity, importance, and variability of inferences by examining actual cases in which trial and appellate (or majority and dissenting) judges draw quite different …

Disguised Patent Policymaking, Saurabh Vishnubhakat

Washington and Lee Law Review

Patent Office power has grown immensely in this decade, and the agency is wielding its power in predictably troubling ways. Like other agencies, it injects politics into its decisions while relying on technocratic justifications. It also reads grants of authority expansively to aggrandize its power, especially to the detriment of judicial checks on agency action. However, this story of Patent Office ascendancy differs from that of other agencies in two important respects. One is that the U.S. patent system still remains primarily a means for allocating property rights, not a comprehensive regime of industrial regulation. Thus, the Patent Office cannot …

Collateral Consequences Of Pretrial Diversion Programs Under The Heck Doctrine, Bonnie Gill

Washington and Lee Law Review

Following the Introduction, Part II of this Note gives an overview of federal and state pretrial diversion programs. Part III explores the statutory and doctrinal background of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, including its interaction with another civil rights statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, the federal habeas statute. Both statutes are essential to understanding the Heck v. Humphrey doctrine’s purpose and application to pretrial diversion participants. Part III also explores the development and interpretation of the Heck doctrine in four Supreme Court cases. Part IV discusses the circuit split as it currently stands. Part V presents three proposals for resolving the …

Flip It And Reverse It: Examining Reverse Gender Discrimination Claims Brought Under Title Ix, Courtney Joy Mcmullan

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Note begins in Part II by discussing the prevalence of campus sexual assault and the ways in which Title IX is used to address it on university campuses. Part III examines reverse Title IX claims by accused students, including the various causes of action and the pleading standards required. Part III also surveys the success of reverse Title IX claims using public pressure on universities to address sexual assault to support their allegations of gender discrimination. Part IV then evaluates the way summary judgment rules and burden-shifting frameworks affect the likelihood of success for reverse Title IX claims. Finally, …

Masthead

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Demystifying Patent Holdup, Thomas F. Cotter, Erik Hovenkamp, Norman Siebrasse

Washington and Lee Law Review

Patent holdup can arise when circumstances enable a patent owner to extract a larger royalty ex post than it could have obtained in an arms length transaction ex ante. While the concept of patent holdup is familiar to scholars and practitioners—particularly in the context of standard-essential patent (SEP) disputes—the economic details are frequently misunderstood. For example, the popular assumption that switching costs (those required to switch from the infringing technology to an alternative) necessarily contribute to holdup is false in general, and will tend to overstate the potential for extracting excessive royalties. On the other hand, some commentaries mistakenly presume …

Children In Armed Conflict, In The Oxford Handbook Of Children’S Rights Law (Jonathan Todres & Shani M. King Eds., 2020), Mark A. Drumbl

Books and Chapters

This chapter addresses a particularly vulnerable population of children, namely, children associated with armed forces or armed groups. These children are colloquially known as child soldiers. This chapter begins by surveying the prevalence of child soldiering globally. It then sets out the considerable amount of international law that addresses children in armed conflict, in particular, the law that allocates responsibility for child soldiering and the law that sets out the responsibility of child soldiers for their conduct. The chapter identifies significant gaps between the law and the securing of positive outcomes for former child soldiers, notably when it comes to …

Foreword, In From The Texas Cotton Fields To The United States Tax Court: The Life Journey Of Juan F. Vasquez (Mary Theresa Vasquez & Anthony Head, 2020), Brant J. Hellwig

Books and Chapters

The story of the life of the first Hispanic American appointed to serve as a judge on the United States Tax Court. An educational and inspirational story of a professional career, the book is accessible to lawyers and laypersons of all ages.

Compliance As An Exchange Of Legitimacy For Influence, In The Oxford Handbook Of Global Legal Pluralism (Paul Schiff Berman Ed., 2020), Kishanthi Parella

Books and Chapters

This chapter explains that business actors comply with legally nonbinding institutions because of an exchange between legitimacy and influence. Specifically, the information effects produced by both binding and nonbinding institutions can cause reputational damage to a company. To regain its legitimacy, that company associates itself with a more reputable organization than itself, regaining legitimacy through that association. However, that association often comes at a price. In exchange for conferring legitimacy, the external organization will promote its own institutions for the company’s adoption. Companies therefore adopt these institutions in order to credibly signal the quality of their association with the external …